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School crisis was fake, but if it's ever real ... Photo by Bob Pennell Officer Steve Furst moves across the North Medford High School campus Wednesday during a drill to train officers to respond to crises on campus. Police learn the drill By JULIE SWENSEN In a sign of the times, North Medford High school staff and Medford police prepared Wednesday for their response if a gunman were to come onto campus. Community service officer Arturo Vega, role-playing the gunman, started the drill at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday when he walked into the humanities building at the school with a fake gun. According to the scenario, he had been suspended from school and had made threats against the dean. The hypothetical drama unfolded like this: In the school's office, receptionist Garnet Page heard Principal Don Lacey's urgent voice on the radio: "I have an emergency situation. I've got a young man with a gun walking into the humanities building ..." Page called for an administrator, and vice principal Buzz Brazeau told teachers over the intercom to secure their classrooms. As Lacey called with more details about the gunman's description and location, Brazeau phoned for help. Police arrived and set up a perimeter. A juvenile department official and negotiators came to the scene, as did K-9 units and a SWAT team. The media were kept away to avoid publicizing the officers' tactics. The hostages were Mike Kay, North Medford athletic director/dean of students, and two Medford police Explorers who portrayed students -- Troy Tanner, 16, and Tiffany Newlun, 18. Explorers are young volunteers who are interested in becoming police officers. Police negotiated with the suicidal hostage-taker for three hours by phone and intercom. His demands ranged from wanting something to eat to wanting to be a student and back on the football team. The gunman let the students go first, then Kay, before putting his weapon down and stepping into the breezeway, where the SWAT team took him into custody. After it was over, the group got some sandwiches and analyzed the exercise. The drill not only let officers get a better feel for the layout of the school, but it gave negotiators some practice. The Jackson County Sheriff's Department's negotiation team was brought in to help. To ensure that onlookers wouldn't think the drill was the real thing, police issued fliers to neighbors and put up signs. Medford police will do another drill next week at South Medford High School. Last week, MPD's SWAT team helped in a drill at Ashland High. While this was the first such drill at North, a real incident happened there in 1990 when a student discharged a weapon in class. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA